Thursday, October 31, 2013

OK, as I write this, and upload these random iphone photographs of recordings of forgotten scores by Walter Morse Rummel, Edmund Dulac, and Dr. John Larchet for WB Yeats plays with the DIT Conservatory of Music [recorded and edited by DIT's Ben Rawlins],on April 19th and June 28th, Tom Hickey's narration of programme one is being mixed by sound engineer supremo John Davis. Very exciting! I thought this day would never get here, but I think it is now safe to say that we are well and truly nearly there. Huge thanks to all at DIT for their kind contribution to the programme - Kerry Houston, Cliona Doris, Julie Maisel, David Scott, Arun Rao, Tom Doorley, Noel Eccles and Ben Rawlins. Also thanks to "Everlasting Voices" team William Brooks, Nuala Hayes, and Paul Roe. All going according to plan, you will be able to hear the first of two one hour documentaries "WB Yeats: Words for Music Perhaps" on Friday week, November 8th on RTE Lyric FM in their 7pm "Lyric Feature" slot.

In the hope of effecting a democratic, “magical revolution”, not only did WB Yeats evolve a philosophy of chanting his verse, but he also commissioned avant-garde composers Walter Morse Rummel and George Antheil to write music for his plays. What was his relationship to music? Riverdance composer Bill Whelan and director Jim Flannery reconsider their 1990s Yeats season at the Abbey in light of the first ever recordings of Rummel’s and Edmond Dulac’s forgotten scores, performed by DIT Conservatory of Music. What was WB Yeats – said by many to be tone deaf - hearing in his inner ear? Contributors include Ron Schuchard, Margaret Mills Harper, Donnacha Dennehy, Cliona Doris, Noel Eccles, Olwen Fouere, Harry White, Emilie Morin, Charles Timbrell, and Declan Kiberd.

DIT Conservatory of Music, June 28th, 2013

Walter Morse Rummel's as yet unheard score for "The Dreaming of the Bones"

We were also extremely lucky to find "Everlasting Voices" a new composition by William Brooks, featuring Nuala Hayes on auto-harp, and clarinettist Paul Roe, inspired by WB Yeats and Florence Farr's experiments on "Speaking to the Psaltery". They kindly allowed us to record their rehearsal at Dublin's Royal Irish Academy of Music last Wednesday, October 23rd before their lunchtime lecture/performance there. Here are some pictures of their most fascinating and rather beautiful project:

Nuala Hayes plays auto-harp in "Everlasting Voices"

Margaret Mills Harper, Director of the Yeats Summerschool

Florence Farr, and her Psaltery, made by Arnold Dolmetsch

WB Yeats in 1923

"Everlasting Voices" by William Brooks at RIAM

Thanks too, to Irish Theatre Institute for allowing us to rehearse the VO for programme one there.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Life is busy right now and I am in the Yeats-zone, in production with my imminent pair of radio documentaries "WB Yeats: Words for Music Perhaps". This morning we recorded a wonderful conversation with greats composer Bill Whelan and theatre director Jim Flannery on their five-year annual Yeats season at the Abbey theatre. Last week we enjoyed Yeatsian conversation with Donnacha Dennehy on his extraordinary Yeats settings; with Margaret Mills Harper on Yeats, Music, Magic and other stuff; and with Charles Timbrell on the intriguing Walter Morse Rummel who wrote the original score for The Dreaming of the Bones. Next week we chat about the Abbey Orchestra and other related topics with Harry White, as well as with Emilie Morin, Ron Schuchard (Author of The Last Minstrels - check out the e-book version), and musicologist Aileen Dillane. We're looking forward to it. And next Saturday, October 12th promises a very special recording session I'll tell you about later! So watch this space! Or should I say - listen...

In the meantime, here is a link to my latest contribution to RTE Sunday Miscellany, entitled "MY ART EDUCATION", involving a Turner Prize winning sculptor based in Wuppertal, Joseph Beuys, Pina Bausch, and butter - among other contributions that are well worth a listen:

http://www.rte.ie/radio/utils/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html#!rii=9:10201406:68:29-09-2013:SUNDAY MISCELLANY 29 September 2013 New short writing:
The Roundabouts – a poem by Pat Boran
Riverrun by Gemma Tipton
Seán Lester by Maurice Cashell
My Art Education by Deirdre Mulrooney
St. Cyril and a cottage near Lanesboro by Jack Harte
Seamus Heaney in Heaven – a poem by Iggy McGovern
Music:
Prelude in G Flat by Sergei Rachmaninov with James Rhodes (piano)
Aria from Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach performed by
Jens Schöwing’s trio project
The Trout by Franz Schubert sung by Olaf Bär
Adagio from Sonata for Violin and Piano by Leo Janacek with Victoria Mullova (violin) and Piotr Anderszewski (piano)
The Ariel Hornpipe / Eleanor Kane’s Blue performed by Manus McGuire(Fiddle), Denis Morrison(piano) and Garry Ó Briain( guitar)

PS I pick the above images, all (except the Kerrygold), sculptures by Tony Cragg, because I like them, and, they all seem to involve tidying, and cleaning utensils... You will understand the relevance better if you clean your conscience by listening to my radio essay!